


Fear & Delight

by EpiKatt



Category: Call of Duty (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Concussions, Fluff and Angst, Game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Gunshot Wounds, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M, Military, Missions Gone Wrong, Sarcasm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:34:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26230486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EpiKatt/pseuds/EpiKatt
Summary: Hornet's nest but with a little bit more Roach/Ghost.
Relationships: Simon "Ghost" Riley/Gary "Roach" Sanderson
Comments: 8
Kudos: 57





	Fear & Delight

**Author's Note:**

> Hello it's 2 am again and I honestly didn't even mean to finish this. We love bad habits.
> 
> First time writing this pair, but I really wanted to do this mission, so have fun.
> 
> Title from The Correspondents. Unbeta'd as always.

Roach thought things were going rather well, if your definition of “well” was being constantly pinned down behind yet another dusty building or concrete wall while just trying to keep from being shot. His first priority was himself, then Ghost, who was screaming some sort of warcry their opponents wouldn’t understand, and Soap. His actual task was to defend Soap, so it was a fairly normal thing to be prioritizing. 

His reasons for keeping an eye on Ghost were of a far more personal nature. They’d finally admitted their feelings to each other when a week later Russia declared war on America, and since then they hadn’t had many chances to talk or spend time together, as each time they had a reprieve they just collapsed and fell asleep. 

Roach just wanted this whole shitshow to end.

As they got closer and closer to the marketplace, Roach found that this was quickly becoming more and more of a shitshow as well, and like the aforementioned one, he wanted this one to end too. 

In the marketplace itself, the sound of gunshots were being nearly combated with the sounds of screaming chickens. Roach growled under his breath and shook his head to try and get the pitch to not get to him as bad. It didn’t work, but he expected that. 

Roach soon got into the mindset of crouching, firing, peeking, and hiding again fairly quickly. The sound of Ghost yelling “Bloody wankers!” across the square assured him the idiot was still breathing. Roach had ducked down to reload when the absence of everything but the chickens and his own breathing caught his attention. He frowned and finished sliding the magazine in, peeking up and looking over to Soap and quirking an eyebrow. 

Soap quickly turned in the general direction of where the rest of the squad was and yelled, “There’s Nikolai’s Pave Low! Let’s go!”

Roach took no more convincing and shot off after Soap, Ghost behind him as well. He’d glanced behind him and caught the familiar skull mask.

“Nikolai! ETA 20 seconds! Be ready for immediate dust off!” Soap yelled, turning into the houses lining the area. Roach slipped in behind him as well and saw Ghost do the same. 

“That may not be fast enough! I see more militia closing in on the market!” Nikolai replied, tone concerned.

Roach frowned and looked Ghost up and down quickly to check for any wounds, and was pleased to see him dirty but otherwise blood free. He merely smiled when Ghost noticed and tilted his head with a vaguely amused expression.

“Pick up the pace! Let’s go!” Soap ordered, running through the buildings and outside, the rest of the following behind dutifully.

“It’s too hot! We will not survive this landing!” Nikolai yelled, voice strained.

Roach saw Soap look uncertain, obviously thinking of alternative plans. Couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like had Price been there. Roach had hardly known him other than Operation Kingpin, but he could tell then was a fine leader he was, and how much Soap liked him. Roach couldn’t stop his thoughts from wandering to whether the two had been a couple, Soap’s reaction after seemed to point to it. 

As it were, they had other things to think about. Like how they were getting the hell out of there.

“Nikolai, wave off, wave off! We’ll meet you at the secondary LZ instead! Go!” Soap called, already running in the direction they needed to go. Roach followed behind on tired legs. The small rest had been long enough for the adrenaline to ease a little. 

“Very well, I will meet you there! Good luck!” Roach could see Nikolai flying off out of the corner of his eye, but was a little more focused on firing at the men with RPGs on the roofs. 

“Come on! We’ve got to get to the rooftops, this way!” Soap began running toward a low wall leading to the rooftops, and Roach dredged up some more energy and followed as fast as he could, though Ghost overtook him. He managed to climb up with Soap’s help and began racing toward the LZ, footsteps sounding louder than anything on the sheet metal. 

“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Soap urged, Roach desperately following behind. The adrenaline was seeping back in though, heart pumping faster as he heard the sounds of many behind them.

“My friend, from up here, it looks like the whole village is trying to kill you!” Nikolai said, sounding a little amused. 

_ Oh, perfect. What a place to go. May be able to survive anything, but certainly not a bunch of angry men with guns, well, more angry men than usual. _

“Tell me something I don’t know! Just be ready to pick us up!”

“We’re running out of rooftop!” Ghost yelled, voice uncertain as they came across a ledge with a far jump across to the other side.

“We can make it! Go go!” Soap snapped, jumping across while Ghost and a few others did the same. Roach glanced behind him and swallowed nervously, forcing himself to run faster to make the jump. At the last second, his boots lost their grip on the ledge, not giving him enough power to land on the other side. Instead, he landed chest first, knocking the wind out of him even as he desperately scrabbled at the smooth surface to stay on. His heart was pounding in his ears and he totally ignored his inability to breathe, filed that away for later. He was nearly all the way off when Soap slid down, reaching down to grab him. It was then that Roach’s grip finally gave, their fingers brushing.

“Roach!” Ghost yelled.

It was the last thing Roach heard before he plummeted down, head hitting the ground with a crack and everything went black.

  
  
  


Everything was fuzzy, and there was a splitting pain through his skull and ribs. 

“Roach! Roach! Wake up!” Soap shouted, voice near begging. Roach blinked sluggishly, body slow to respond to his commands as he tried to look around, move a limb.

“Roach! We can see them from the chopper! They’re coming for you, dozens of ‘em!” Soap insisted. Roach also could have sworn he heard Ghost yelling Roach at some point as well.

“Roach! There’s too many of them! Get the hell out of there and find a way to the rooftops! Move!”

Roach turned his head, vision clearing just enough to see that Soap was indeed right and that there were too many of them and they were coming  _ fast. _

He swallowed and forced himself to his feet, body feeling heavy and uncoordinated and all wrong, but the impending danger made him shove it aside, forcing blurry eyes to focus and heavy legs to move. 

Racing through the buildings was a blur, but Soap yelling “Roach, we’re circling the area but I can’t see you! You’ve got to get to the rooftops!” snapped him right out of the haze.

After another few seconds of panicked running through poor people’s houses, he finally made it to the rooftops, exploding out the door and onto the familiar sheet metal. The bright light made him squint, barely able to see as his eyes adjusted slower than usual.

“Roach! I see you! Jump down to the rooftops and meet us south of your position! Go!” Soap instructed. Roach simply grunted and continued running, feet sliding on the loose metal and bullets pinging at his heels.

“Gas is very low! I must leave in thirty seconds!” Nikolai warned. 

Roach grit his teeth against the pain and dizziness and pushed himself to run faster, breath coming out in sharp gasps that barely filled his lungs. 

“Roach! We’re running on fumes here! You got thirty seconds! Run!”

_ Bastard, I’m running fast as I can!  _ Roach growled internally, so tired even his mental voice sounded breathless.

“Left! Turn left and jump down!” Soap ordered, which Roach promptly followed, slipping on the metal a little before regaining his balance and taking off again.

“Come on!” Soap demanded. Roach cursed under his breath at Soap, and then again when he saw the men on the roofs and getting closer.

He ran through a house and slid down a wood ramp, ankles protesting at the landing but he  _ didn’t care,  _ the chopper was right there!

“Jump for it!” Soap yelled, waving frantically. 

Roach sucked in a quick breath before launching off the side, grabbing the ladder just as a searing pain tore through his thigh. He let out a hoarse cry and merely let go before immediately tightening his grip, teeth clenched hard enough to make his teeth creak to keep from making anymore noise. He could wait, they needed to get out.

“Nikolai! We got him! Get us outta here!”

“Where to, my friend?”

“Just get us to the sub.”

  
  
  


He took a few minutes to compose himself before climbing up, idly wondering why Ghost hadn’t said anything before he hauled himself inside, leg screaming at him to  _ stop.  _

Soap thankfully helped drag him in completely, setting him in the middle.

“What’s wrong, lad?” he asked, crouching beside him worriedly. 

Roach grunted and looked at his leg. Soap frowned and peered at it. 

“Just a graze. You’ll be fine. Anything else?”

Roach nearly snorted. “Got a bloody concussion from falling head first,” he muttered, shutting his eyes to block the harsh light. 

Soap did snort. “Yeah, s’what happens. As much as I’d love to send you home, we can’t spare you. We’ll just have to load you full of pain meds until all this is over,” Soap said, sounding apologetic. 

Roach simply hummed softly, loud and it would hurt, shaking his head would also hurt.

“Why didn’t I hear Ghost?” he asked after a moment.

Soap’s mouth quirked up in amusement. “Because I knew him ranting to you about how reckless you are and him saying how worried he was would have drowned out me telling you how to get here,” he admitted, pulling some bandages out of a pocket and wrapping them around Roach’s slowly bleeding leg. 

“This’ll hold for a bit.”

“Can I go back there and see him now?” Roach mused.

Soap let out an exasperated sigh but nodded. “Aye, but let me help you up,” he insisted, climbing to his feet before holding out a hand to help Roach up as well.

He muttered his thanks, barely heard over the sound of the chopper, before walking further inside, seeing a pissed off Ghost in the corner. He limped over and sat beside him, waiting for Ghost to say something. The other members of the team had already passed out for a short power nap as soon as the adrenaline left their systems.

Ghost wrapped an arm around Roach’s waist and tugged him close, settling his chin on top of Roach’s head. “Nearly lost you, you tosser,” Ghost huffed, throat vibrating against Roach’s ear.

“Not on purpose, you know,” he replied, eyes getting heavy as he got more and more comfortable.

“Mm. Don’t know what I’d do without you, bug,” he murmured.

Roach let out a quiet huff of amusement. “ _ Now  _ you get all sentimental, ‘course,” he teased, flicking Ghost’s leg weakly.

“Not busy for a moment,” Ghost said with a shrug. 

Roach rolled his half lidded eyes, glad the room was dark. He could only hope he slept off some of the negative effects of the concussion, he could deal with the graze far easier.

“You make it out in one piece?” Ghost suddenly said, voice going for casual but coming out concerned.

“Graze in my thigh,” he admitted, shifting a little to fit more comfortably against Ghost’s chest, uncaring of the gear and other things in between them. “Brain’s a bit mashed from landing on it like an idiot,” he said, voice amused. 

Ghost made a startled sound. “Did Soap you could stay on?”

“Yeah. Said I was too valuable and that they’d keep me nice and high on pills until this all blows over and I hopefully get a nice vacation,” he replied, voice getting lower as he got closer and closer to slipping off.

“Really? Bloody wanker,” Ghost muttered incredulously. 

Roach just hummed, already nearly asleep.

He felt Ghost shift behind him before the arm around his waist tightened.

Roach didn’t much care that they smelled like gunpowder and sweat, how he was too warm to be this close to someone else. He was content.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked more of my fresh angst. Been trying to get more into it.
> 
> Bet you guys would like to know that I've been on a COD buying binge. Here's my current list of games, COD2,3,4, MW2,3, COD Ghosts, and WAW. Shit's cheap for the 360 and they're backwards compatible. COD1 I'll have to get on my laptop and I'm waiting for it to go on sale bc I'm not paying 20$ lmao. Been playing COD2 and I hate Price's voice, he's all snooty. Miss the cockney. 
> 
> ANYWAY, please leave a kudos if you enjoyed, I'll be sure to suck them down my gullet like kirby.
> 
> (I have some ideas involving Roach, so be on the look out...)


End file.
